NaNoWriMO!!!

Every year, there The Office of Light and Letters sponsors the National Novel Writing Month:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
(beware, they are up and down a lot due to server traffic)
I really wanted to this year, but I just can't put 50,000 words on paper in November. I have hopes of forcing myself to write a novel in January, but without anyone to be accountable to I will probably stall out. So, I'm passing the torch to Rebi for now. My turn will come, just not for a few more years.

Rebi has decided she is going to write 40,000 words by the end of November. If you're 12 or under, you get to choose your word count. Here is a sample of her writing:

I take a deep breath of the crisp air. I step into the forest and start running. The wind plays with my long blond hair and tickles my ears. I feel the cool ground beneath my bare feet as they dance across the ground. I hear the noises of the animals in the trees. They scurry away as I come by. I see a crow fly up into the air, its dark body a silhouette against the light morning sky. I step over a rock in my path and keep going. I don't know where I'm going. I just run for enjoyment. It's my routine every morning I go out and run until I'm worn out, but today I feel like something special is about to happen.

A Public Service Announcement

1) Never leave toothpicks on the floor.
2) Should you step on a toothpick and a piece of it breaks off in your foot, it is not a good idea to wait several months before consulting a doctor.
3)The cost of removing aforementioned piece of toothpick stands to run into the thousands of dollars.
4) Should you get to the point of surgical removal of toothpick, be sure your insurance pays more than 50-60% of any claim.

Happy Halloween!

Somehow, I managed to not get a picture of Tyler, even though he has worn his costume 4 or 5 times now.

Halloween was a free-for-all, as always. Dave took everyone trick-or treating while Tyler and I took Shari and her kids to the airport ( we were not at all happy to see them leave. Come back soon! In fact, when I told Ty I had a headache, he told me- with big weepy eyes- that he had a "crying ache" because he missed Marshall so much already). I returned home to a phone call that Dave had lost a couple of kids, so I grabbed Ty, threw part of his costume on him, and drug him around to search for the lost ones.

We finally all met up at a friend's house, where there was a giant blow up pumpkin, which the kids were having a blast rolling around in. The fun ended around 9:30, and all of the kids came running to greet me. It was then that we realized (from the hideous stench) that the entire park they had been running, rolling, and crawling around in had been recently and freshly fertilized with manure. I seriously had to hang my head out the window the entire way home. They had poop on their clothes, in their hair, covering their feet. . .How does one roll around in manure and not smell it???

And Rebi wants me to be sure to tell everyone that she was not rolling or crawling in anything. She does admit to running through it, but she swears she had shoes on (mine, of course and they are very covered in poop as well).